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Kerry Wan/ZDNET Did you know that whenever you turn on your smart TV, you invite an unseen guest to watch it with you? These days, most popular TV models utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a form of ad surveillance technology that gathers information about everything you watch and transmits it to a centralized database. Manufacturers then use your data to identify your viewing preferences, enabling them to deliver highly targeted ads. Also: The fastest VPNs of 2025:…

“One of the challenges for AI — for any brand new technology — is putting the right combination of infrastructure together to make the technology work,” says Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst at ZK Research. “If one of those components isn’t on par with the other two, you’re going to be wasting your money.” Time is taking care of the first problem. More and more enterprises are moving from pilot projects to production, and…

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET Amazon has been focused on bringing generative AI to Alexa for the past few years, hitting multiple delays in launching new features that the company first announced in September 2023. The delayed Alexa 2.0 was poised for a 2025 release, and Amazon just wrapped up an event where it made big announcements for the artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant. Amid rumors of Alexa 2.0 shortcomings, Amazon skipped its 2024 Devices and Services event, where…

Apple/ZDNET Apple’s follow-up to the budget iPhone SE — the iPhone 16e — is here. As the more affordable option in the lineup, the tech giant cut a few features to keep costs down and make the pricier models more appealing.  One of the notable omissions? MagSafe.  Also: What does the ‘e’ in iPhone 16e stand for? While the iPhone 16e supports older, low-speed Qi wireless charging (capped at 7.5W), it lacks the magnets that…

ZDNET Another day. Another cloud service changing the rules on stuff we already bought and paid for. This time, Amazon is removing a feature that’s been part of the Kindle experience for more than a decade: downloading files to your computer. Also: This clever Kindle trick lets you download 25 books at once – but it’s risky I’m not going to bury the lede: You have until Feb. 26, 2025, to download copies of your…

SR650a V4: a 2U2S design specifically meant for high-end use, such as AI and other GPU-intensive workloads like machine learning, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and media analytics. The platform supports up to four double-wide GPUs with front GPU access. Of the three servers, this is the one most geared toward AI. The ThinkSystem V4 solutions use Lenovo’s homegrown Neptune liquid cooling technology. A new feature called Neptune Core Compute Complex Module offers reduced fan speeds,…

4. Europe is on the AI clock Each wave of technology creates an opportunity for the different regions of the globe to establish themselves as a leader. The battle for AI supremacy is well underway with the US having a strong foothold. The Middle East is likely to have an impact, as many countries there have made commitments to investing in this area. During a press Q&A, Oliver Tuszik, president of EMEA for Cisco, talked…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Phelinta 3-in-1 charger is available now on Amazon for $43 a pop. It charges all of your Pixel devices in one convenient place. It isn’t the fastest charger on the planet, but it does exactly what it needs to. What’s the deal? On Amazon, Phelinta’s 3-in-1 wireless charger has received a 7% price drop and a 20% off coupon. Combined, these two discounts bring the device’s cost down to about $32….

ZDNET Before you get too excited, point releases rarely (if ever) deliver exciting new features, and that holds true with Ubuntu. Point releases (in this case, .2) tend to be more about bug fixes, performance improvements, application upgrades, and security patches. But that doesn’t mean they’re always boring. These point releases almost always make the distribution better in more ways than one. Also: Don’t know how to quit Windows 10? This Linux distro is for…

UDN improves the flexibility and segmentation capability of the default layer 3 Kubernetes pod network for VM administrators by enabling custom, isolated-by-default layer 2, layer 3, and localnet network segments, Lim explained. The segment can act as either primary or secondary networks for container pods and VMs.  Lim noted that UDN custom network segmentation will enable organizations to do a few things. For example, it can be used as an easy way to create multi-tenant…